


Nature's Justice

by hardboiledbaby



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Canon Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-30
Updated: 2011-10-30
Packaged: 2017-10-25 02:44:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/270859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardboiledbaby/pseuds/hardboiledbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nature's justice: harsh, imperfect... inexorable. Tag for <i>The Five Orange Pips</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nature's Justice

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the LJ sherlock60 comm, expanded to a 221b ficlet. The 60-word version is posted [**here**](http://sherlock60.livejournal.com/34795.html).

In the end, it was not man's justice that befell those responsible for the murder of poor young Openshaw. It was justice of another sort, punishment meted out by the cruel and uncaring sea, taking both the guilty and the innocent aboard the _Lone Star_ down to their own deaths.

An unfair, tragic ending? Undoubtedly so. But no less unfair than the sins of the Colonel being visited unknowingly upon his brother and his nephew. No less tragic than the undeniable fact that Holmes did too little, too late, and will always carry the burden of that failure with him. The sad truth of the matter is, in coming to Baker Street to consult Holmes, Openshaw did not alter the course of his fate in the slightest.

If there can be said that any good came out of this, perhaps it is here, in my record of these terrible events. For all that it will remain forever unproven in the eyes of the law, it stands, I hope, as a condemnation of the evils perpetrated by Captain James Calhoun and his K. K. K. brethren. A silver lining, if one barely worthy of the name.

Nature's justice is harsh and imperfect. Is man's justice better, or worse? It is a question that goes unanswered every autumn, when the equinoctial gales blow.


End file.
